AOL acquires question-and-answer service Yedda

Time Warner unit AOL announced early Monday morning that it has acquired Yedda, a question-and-answer start-up that was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2006. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition, according to a release from AOL, was all about Yedda's code: the patent-pending semantic technology "automatically matches questions to other related questions and topics, while selecting the best available users to answer the question." Yedda-powered features are set to begin appearing on AOL's sites over the next few months.

AOL makes plenty of acquisitions, but most of the recent ones have been directly related to its renewed role as an advertising-focused media company. Last week, the company, which recently decided to move its headquarters to New York, purchased advertising-technology company Quigo, and in the spring, it acquired cell phone advertising firm Third Screen Media.

Questions spotted on Yedda, for the record, range from the practical to the bizarre--from "What was the name of the woman (model?) in the '80s video 'I Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison?" to "How can I install Boot Camp on an external drive?" to "How to build a barn owl cage?"